Purdue’s eight consecutive years as a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament is now the longest active streak in the country.As Matt Painter knows, winning games once you get there is another matter.The Boilermakers are a No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region and streaking 13th-seeded High Point arrives as a motivated challenger on Thursday in Providence, R.I.Purdue (22-11), which lost six of its final nine games, has not-too-distant memories of falling as a No. 1 seed to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023. The Boilermakers brushed that off and reached the championship game last season, where they lost to UConn.This is Purdue’s first tournament of the post-Zach Edey era, but Painter expects the battle scars will give senior Caleb Furst and juniors Trey Kaufman-Renn, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer an edge.”I talked about it the other day with our team — the feeling you have when you lose games and how that doesn’t go away, but how it helps you from a human nature standpoint get ready for that next game,” Painter said. “That’s what you want. You want to be on edge, and you can’t forget because the season gets long, is this is what you work for.”There could be a rich reward for advancing the Sweet 16 with the Midwest semifinals and final played 65 miles from the Purdue campus at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.Kaufman-Renn led Purdue in scoring (20.2 points per game) and rebounding (6.2), including a whopping 25.6 ppg over his last five. Smith ranked second in Division I in assists per game (8.7), led Purdue in steals (2.2) and was the No. 2 scorer (16.1). Both could garner All-America honors.Loyer (13.8 ppg) injured his elbow during Purdue’s last game, a Big Ten quarterfinal loss to Michigan. But Painter said Loyer would “definitely play” Thursday, even if he doesn’t practice during the week.The Panthers (29-5) have been off since March 9, when they beat Winthrop 81-69 for the Big South title. They own the nation’s longest active winning streak at 14 games, which might make it harder to sneak up on a high-major opponent.”All that means is that we had a great season,” High Point coach Alan Huss said. “But it doesn’t gain us any points or anything like that. It probably wakes Purdue up a little bit.”